Your product pages are arguably the most important pages on your website, and the quality of the content within these pages is just as important.

Important information about your product's page content

Your Product Titles

Every product in your shop should feature descriptive and if possible, emotive titles. Non-descript titles will do little to attract the eye of your customers so write titles that are more likely to grab a reader's attention. Unless product identification codes are a key feature in your product's marketing, don't include them within your titles.

Your Product Descriptions

Your product description text should be original and never copied from supplier or manufacturer websites at any time. Write informative descriptions that highlight your product's key features and benefits, and remember, it's not "War and Peace"! Consider using bullet points for important features, and bold type key pieces of information for the benefit of customers that quickly skim through text looking for information relevant to their "search".

Your Product Images

Your products should include more than one image/photo and be varied enough that little is left to a customer's imagination. Consider engaging a professional photographer with experience in product photography. The investment will be worthwhile.

Adding a product to My Shop (eCommerce packages only)

To add a single product:

1. Go to My Shop.
2. Click on a category from the Categories pane to display its products in the Product Inventory pane on the right side of the page.
3. Click the New Product button.
4. There are six tabs for you to enter product details, images and files, shipping and taxes, keywords and description, cross-sell links and options.  See the individual articles for these steps.
5. Click the Save Product button.

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Entering general product information (eCommerce packages only)

1. Go to My Shop
   
   
2. For a new product: Click on a category from the Categories pane to display its products in the Product Inventory pane on the right side of the page. Click the New Product button.
   
   To edit an existing product: Click on a category from the Categories pane to display its products in the Product Inventory pane on the right side of the page.
   
   
3. Click the General Product Information tab. Enter details as follows:
   
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     • Product Name: Enter the name of the individual product. The name entered here is exactly what will appear in the shop.
     • Product Link: By default what you type into the 'Product Name' field will appear automatically as your Product Link (URL). You can override the default by entering a URL that better describes your product. The URL must be unique and not used for any other product in your shop. Use a hyphen '-' to separate words; you must not use spaces when creating a URL.
       
     • Product ID: This is your reference / product number for the product.
     • Price: Enter the base value of the product. Any discounts, price varying options and tax rates will be applied to this amount.
     • Primary Category: Select the major category that this product record will be found under.
     • Secondary Categories: Select up to two other categories if you would like the product to appear more than once at the front of your website.
     • Status: The default status is available. You may change the status at any time in the future by changing the status to Out of Stock, Back Order or Pre order. Depending on your website preferences, Out of Stock, Back Order and Pre Order items may or may not appear at the front of the website. See Product inventory related article for more information.
     • Short Description: Enter a succinct phrase about the product to entice visitors to click on the product. It will appear near the thumbnail (small image) of the product when customers search for the item.
     • Long Description: Enter a long description to this field to appear on the product page for this item.
     • Extra Fields: If you added your own custom fields in the inventory preferences they will appear here. Enter in the relevant information for the extra fields.
     • Product Flags: Products in your shop can be visually flagged with an icon stating that a product is either 'New', 'On Sale' or 'Featured'. When assigned to a product, a flag is visible to customers when viewing the shop category in which the product is presented. The duration that a product flag appears can be set by entering an end date using the format indicated (YYYY-MM-DD). At the end of your promotion's expiry period, the flag will disappear. See Your Shopfront for more about Product Flags and how they control what appears in your Shopfront page.
4. Click the Save Product button or click on the next tab to enter/edit more product details.

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Promotional Product Flags (v4 eCommerce software)

Product Flags are designed to promote products in your shop by placing a visual flag over a product's thumbnail image. This allows flagged products to stand out from other products displayed on a page. There are 3 Product Flags available: On Sale, Featured and New, with each flag styled differently so that customers can quickly identify products being promoted.

• A promotion end date must be set when assigning a Product Flag. A Product Flag displays for a set amount of time and will automatically cease to display once the  promotion end-date is reached.
• Products with Product Flags that appear in your Shopfront will be automatically removed from the Shopfront display once their promotion end date is reached. (Read more about building and managing your Shopfront).

From Dashboard > My Shop, you can view which products are flagged while viewing your Product Inventory list. There are no limits to the number of products able to display a Product Flag although only one flag can be assigned to each product at a time. To assign a promotion Product Flag to any product:

1. From the Product Flag section on the product editing page click into the text input field relevant to the promotion you want to apply to the product and enter the end date for the promotion. Alternatively, click the red calendar icon and select the promotion end date.
2. Click the Save Changes button to activate the promotion flag.

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Entering images for a product (eCommerce packages only)

Each product can have a number of images associated with it.  The first image can appear as a thumbnail on the category page as well as a large image on the product details page.  All subsequent images will only appear on the product image page.  

By default, there is space to add one image per product all My Shop images are automatically resized by the Site Builder according to the dimensions entered into the Product Inventory Preferences. These settings can be changed in the Product Inventory Preferences at any time.

Images must be .jpg, .gif or .png files or visitors will not be able to view them over the Internet.  The Site Builder will not upload images that are not .jpg, .gif or .png formats.

1. Go to My Shop
2. For a new product: Click on a category from the Categories pane to display its products in the Product Inventory pane on the right side of the page. Click the New Product button.
   
   To edit an existing product: Click on a category from the Categories pane to display its products in the Product Inventory pane on the right side of the page.
3. Click the Images and Files tab.
4. Click on the Browse button under the Image section. This will bring up the explorer window of your computer. Browse through your files and locate the image you want to add to the product. Click on the file name. Click Open. The location of the image will appear in the Upload Image field.
5. Click on the Upload button. The name of the image will appear in the Product Images folder.
6. Click on the name of the image. A preview of the image will appear on the right-hand side.
7. Click on the Select Image button.  The name of the image will now appear in the Add Image field.
8. Title field: Add a title to the image. This title will help search engines to find your images.  When visitors hover over the image, the title will appear in a yellow box.
9. Description field: Enter a specific description of the image.  This will exist as meta data on the web page.  It will only be visible if visitor's browsers are set to ‘not display images'.  It allows vision impaired visitors to hear a description of the image and it also assists search engines to find your products.
10. Sort Order field: If you elect to display more than one image per product through the preferences section, you can set the order in which images appear on the product page by placing a number in this field. Lowest numbers appear first (i.e. an image with a sort order number of one (1) will appear first).
11. Click the Save Product button.

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Adding files to a product (eCommerce packages only)

For each product in your shop, you can add files for visitors to download. These files can be MS Word documents, PDFs, spreadsheets, etc. The files will appear as links on the product page. When visitors click them, the document will open in a new window for them to view. They can also save them to their computer.

You might use this function if you would like to provide visitors with extra information about products such as specification sheets, manus, brochures or even press-related articles.

1. Go to My Shop.
2. For a new product: Click on a category from the Categories pane to display its products in the Product Inventory pane on the right side of the page. Click the New Product button.
   
   To edit an existing product: Click on a category from the Categories pane to display its products in the Product Inventory pane on the right side of the page.
3. Click the Images and Files tab.
4. Click on the Browse button under the File section. This will bring up the explorer window of your computer. Browse through your files and locate the file you want to add to the product.
5. Click on the file name. Click Open. The location of the file will appear in the Upload File field.
6. Click on the Upload button. The name of the file will appear in the Product Files folder.
7. Click on the name of the file.
8. Click on the Select File button.  The name of the file will now appear in the Add File field.
9. Title field: Add a title to the file. This title will help search engines to find your attached files.  When visitors hover over the image, the title will appear in a yellow box.
10. Description field: Enter a description for the file.  This will appear beneath the link on the product page.
11. Sort Order field: If you upload more than one file, you can set the order in which they appear on the product page by placing a number in this field. Lowest numbers appear first (i.e. an image with a sort order number of one (1) will appear first).
12. Click Save Product button.

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Entering shipping and tax information for a product (eCommerce packages only)

For each product in your shop you can set the shipping rate of the item, enter important postal details or exempt the item from tax.

1. Go to My Shop.
2. For a new product: Click on a category from the Categories pane to display its products in the Product Inventory pane on the right side of the page. Click the New Product button.
   
   To edit an existing product: Click on a category from the Categories pane to display its products in the Product Inventory pane on the right side of the page.
3. Click the Shipping and Taxes tab.
4. Free Shipping: Place a tick in this box to exempt this item from global shipping charges.
5. Physical Dimensions: Enter in the weight, height, width and depth of the product. These must be filled in to calculate the cost of shipping if your global shipping options are set to Australia Post or Rate by weight.
6. Handling per item: Enter a value in this field to set the value for the handling charges for this particular item. This charge will be applied for each multiple of the particular item that is item purchased.
7. Apply GST: Place a tick in the box to calculate GST on the shipping charge. Remove the tick if the product should be exempt from GST.
8. Click the Save Product button.

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Entering options for a product (eCommerce packages only)

Click on the Options tab. Through the form that appears, you are able to create options that will alter the price of the product. You can also elect to exempt this product from Global Options that have been created.

1. Go to My Shop.

• For a new product: Click on a category from the Categories pane to display its products in the Product Inventory pane on the right side of the page. Click the New Product button.
• To edit an existing product: Click on a category from the Categories pane to display its products in the Product Inventory pane on the right side of the page.

1. Click the Options tab.
2. Ignore any global options that may apply to this category: Place a tick in this box to prevent global options from affecting this product.
3. Option 1 Group Name: Enter the name of the option that will appear on the site. i.e., Ribbon colour
4. Option Description: Enter text to appear on the site under the option name. i.e., Please choose a colour.
5. Sort Order: If you have more than one option group for the product, the sort order field enables you to set the order that options appear on the product page. Enter a number into this field. Lower numbers appear at the top of the product page, higher numbers toward the end.
6. Option Variances: These are the options your customers can choose from that alter the price of the product.

• Option name: Enter the name of the variance i.e., Gold
• Cost: Select the affect that this variant has on the base price of the product. The variance can be either an addition to (+) or a subtraction (-) from the base value.
• Amount: Enter the amount by which the base price will be adjusted i.e., 5.00.
• Variance type: There are two types of variation, set amount and percentage. Select either of these from the drop-down box to change the price by that type.
• Option ID: A reference number for your own use.

1. Click the Save Product button.

By default, there is one option group field for each product. Once you save the product to your shop, another blank option group field will be added, enabling you to add as many options as required.

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Entering keywords and description for a product (eCommerce packages only)

For each product you can enter specific keywords and description. These will increase the likelihood of this product being displayed in a search result through a search engine.

1. Go to My Shop.

• For a new product: Click on a category from the Categories pane to display its products in the Product Inventory pane on the right side of the page. Click the New Product button.
• To edit an existing product: Click on a category from the Categories pane to display its products in the Product Inventory pane on the right side of the page.

1. Click the Keywords and Description tab.
2. Use default keywords? & Use default description?: Click on these links to automatically assign the same keywords & description to this product as the global keywords and descriptions for your site.
3. Meta Keywords: Enter in up to 20 keywords in this section that relate specifically to this product. Remember to use a comma and a space between keywords, for example: teddy bear box, teddy bear delivery.
4. Meta Description: Enter in a two-sentence description relating specifically to this product.
5. Click the Save Product button.

For a further explanation of how to enter effective keywords and description, please see related articles.

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Entering cross-sell links for a product (eCommerce packages only)

Cross-Sell links are a great way to alert customers to other products in your shop that might interest them.

For example, if a visitor is looking at a product like a Valentines Day flower arrangement, it could be beneficial to cross-sell this product with a massive teddy bear that you also stock, or an "I love you" balloon.  The visitor can then navigate directly to those products, look at them and purchase them without having to seek them out themselves.

Cross-sell links appear at the bottom of the product page as the customer is browsing through your products.  You can attach up to five cross-sell links to every product in My Shop.

1. Go to My Shop.

• For a new product: Click on a category from the Categories pane to display its products in the Product Inventory pane on the right side of the page. Click the New Product button.
• To edit an existing product: Click on a category from the Categories pane to display its products in the Product Inventory pane on the right side of the page.

1. Click the Cross-sell links tab.
2. Use random cross-sell link: Place a tick in this box if you would like the SiteBuilder to randomly generate links to up to four other products in your shop from any category. The benefit of these types of cross-sell links is that it gives returning visitors exposure to lots of different products in your inventory.
3. Cross-sell links: Use the drop-down boxes to first select the category, and then the specific product to which you would like to link. The benefit of these types of cross-sell links is that it allows you to tailor the cross-promotion on your sites.
4. Click the Save Product button.

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Can I upload multiple products to My Shop at once? (eCommerce packages only)

You can upload multiple products to your shop at once. It requires that you export and upload a .csv file with all of your product details. See the related article for more information.

My Shopfront products have disappeared. What happened?

It is likely that your products were using the Product Flags promotion feature and the promotion end-date has expired. To automatically have your Shopfront "call up" those products again, move each product's promotion end-date ahead. To prevent this happening in future, closely monitor a product's promotion end-date or record end-dates in a suitable spreadsheet such as MS Excel®, etc.

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